Observations and implications of proteolysis in preparations of foot-and-mouth disease virus.

The integrity of the VP1 protein of foot-and-mouth disease virus was assessed by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (following storage at 4 degrees C of conventional tissue culture preparations and concentrated preparations of the virus. There was little evidence of VP1 degradation in tissue culture filtrates whereas considerable degradation was observed throughout a range of different concentrates. The use of the proteolytic enzyme inhibitor 'Trasylol' appeared to inhibit VP1 degradation in some virus preparations. Vaccination experiments with guinea pigs indicate that cleavage of O BFS 1860 virus by a range of proteolytic enzymes was always associated with a lowered stimulation of neutralising antibody and total antibody. Experiments with six other strains treated with trypsin gave similar results to those obtained with O BFS 1860.